Tuesday, May 31, 2011

I think we've created a monster...

...when it comes to napping. M and I have so enjoyed having Carina nap on us because she sleeps almost 3 times as long as when she is in the crib and actually falls asleep easily is just so cute and snuggly. Recently we have tried putting her in the crib more often for her naps in preparation for the start of our Nanny. Nanny starts when I go back to work full time, two weeks from today.

Unfortunately, she does not usually want to fall asleep in the crib. She will happily coo, blow raspberries, and flail her arms for an hour or more in there. She loves watching her mobile (even when it isn't turned on), likes fiddling with her swaddle blanket, and just chews on her WubbaNub. Basically, she does everything but fall asleep in there.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. I don't want to saddle our poor Nanny with trying to figure out how to get her to nap. I feel like after 5 months we should have this down by now. Is it consistency? Should we stop letting her nap on us cold turkey? This would break my heart because I so enjoy snuggling with her, but will do it if we have to. She usually doesn't fuss or cry, so we really can't do cry-it-out.

I found your blog from some of your bump comments/posts. And I have no suggestions, but I am worrying I will have this same issue soon. My son is 6 weeks and he always takes his naps on me. Whenever I try to put him down he wakes right up and won't fall back to sleep without me holding him. I feel like I can let it go a little longer but I worry it will be an issue in the fall when I have to go back to school.

Maybe when she is about to doze off laying on you, you can gently transfer her to the crib? I bet your smell is really comforting to her as well so maybe you can put a little bit of lotion or spray or what you use on the crib sheet...nothing too overpowering of course. :) Since there's only 2 weeks left I would be super consistent! Since you said she is perfectly content in her crib, even though she isn't falling asleep, I wouldn't even worry about it. If she's tired she will go to sleep. :)

I'll second the others, no naps on you anymore! Only naps in the crib. The white noise is a good idea too, Conor and Riley will only sleep when there's a fan on in their room. and like someone else said, if she's in there just making noise, just let her, and when she's tired enough she'll fall asleep. You might have to endure a week or two of short naps while she gets used to the crib, but once she realizes that you won't let her sleep on you anymore, and the more comfortable she gets in her bed, she'll sleep longer and longer. Good luck!

Awww, I love the snuggles on my chest when LO is asleep on me. I'm the same way! I love it when Arianna snuggles on me to sleep and I would hate for it to end. I think it's comforting for Carina to sleep on you which is why she sleeps longer. I wish I knew what to suggest but Arianna started sleeping on her own. :( I hope you find a way soon!

I have the same problem with my four month old little guy. I don't have an answer for you, but just want to say that I think you're doing a great job with her. The snuggling is so tremendously good for her and she won't have this problem forever.

Maybe stretch the time between naps a little longer (when there aren't cues, I mean). If she were tired, she wouldn't be laying in there happily for an hour!

I recently started trying to transition Calvin into his bed for naps as he's a swing napper. So far, I haven't gotten more than an hour out of him at a time. Not that he sleeps much longer than that in the swing (usually 1-2 hours). He's just not a big napper. He's pretty happy most of the time though, so I'm confident he's getting the sleep he needs.

2 suggestions... I started a morning crib nap with my now 6 month old daughter 3 months ago and it was exactly the same way! I actually ended up removing her mobile because it seemed to be overstimulating her so she thought it was play time. She needed to learn the crib was for sleeping. I started out darkening the room with blackout shades, put on white noise and lullaby music and then I would rock her and shush her till she was falling asleep but not passed out. I would then lay her in her crib drowsy but awake. Sometimes shed sleep and sometimes shed fuss and cry. If she cried I would pat her belly and shush her till she fell asleep. She would always nap 40-50 mins but not get past the first sleep cycle (she would nap hours in her swing!) we just remained consistent and a few weeks ago she started whining when I would rock her so I took it as a sign she wanted to do it herself... And she did! Now I lay her down and tell her its naptime and she puts herself to sleep without rocking ( still white noise and music for consistency though! She is even doing 2-3 hour crib naps now and I thought that day would never come! It may have helped as well that I started laying out a really light blankie she sleeps with in her swing for her to sleep on in her crib and I think she liked the familiaarity of it. I would suggest trying the same thing with a shirt that smells like you! DD started out thinking crib was for plsy like your LO but with persistance and consistency she is finally getting it. I hope some of this might help! ( and please ignore formatting, Im on an ipod!)

Forgot to add maybe as pp suggested she needs more awake time? Keeping DD up 2-2.5 hours between naps seemed to work for us. As soon as she would get whiny and rub her eyes we'd start the nap routine. Hth!